Olympic Prep Part 9: Mixed Group 8

Heem Wei Lim
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We've made it to the end! This is Mixed Group 8 featuring Heem Wei Lim, the 1st WAG to qualify to the Olympics from Singapore, Maria Vargas of Spain who earned her spot after her team failed to qualify at the Test event. It also features Laura Svilapite of Lithuania, Ralitsa Mileva of Bulgaria, and Sherine El Zeiny, Egypt's 2nd gymnast to qualify to the 2012 Olympic Games.


Watch for! Ana Maria Izurieta in the AA and maybe she can sneak into UB or BB EF.

Laura Svilpaite, Lithuania (LTU)
Laura Svilpaite was 56th at the Test Event. She vaults a front handspring front pike. On bars, she does a stalder full Tkatchev, has a Pak salto, an endo, and dismounts with a double pike. On beam, she does a front aerial-back handspring-layout step out, punch front, and a sheep jump, and dismounts with a double twist. On floor, Svilpaite does an excellent job of staying on her toes and keeping her toes pointed. She does a double pike, a double twist, and dismounts with a double tuck.

D-Scores: VT - 4.6, UB - 4.9, BB - 5.0, FX - 4.9
Routine: Watch her UB routine from 2012 European Championships here or below:






Heem Wei Lim, Singapore (SIN)
Heem Wei Lim was 63rd at the Test Event. She is the first Singaporean gymnast to qualify to the Olympics. At 22 yrs old, she is considered "old" in gymnastics and is featured in a commercial promoting sports in Singapore. Watch the inspirational video here. On vault, she does a front handspring pike (4.4 SV) and a Yurchenko piked (4.0 SV). On bars, she does a piked Gienger (or a piked Jaeger as of recent video) and dismounts with a double pike. Heem mounts the beam with a back handspring onto the board, layout stepout onto the beam. She does a switch split 1/2-back tuck, back handspring-layout stepout, a switch ring, and dismounts with a double twist. On floor, she does a double pike, a switch ring, an L turn, and a dramatic finish to a dramatic piece of music - Tosca fantasy by Edvin Martin.

D-Scores: VT - 4.4/4.0, UB - 4.1, BB - 5.2, FX - 4.5
Routine: Watch her routine from 2012 Singapore Nationals here or below:


Ana Maria Izurieta (ESP)
Ana Maria Izurieta was able to beat her teammates to get the sole spot for Spain. She placed 16th at the Test Event, where Spain failed to qualify a team to the Olympics. Had she not had a major error on the uneven bars, she could have scored in the top 6 above athlets like Canada's Christine Peng Peng Lee. Izurieta placed a very respectable 5th in the unofficial all around at the 2012 European Championships after upgrading her balance beam and floor exercise. Izurieta vaults a high and clean DTY. UB seems to give Izurieta trouble as she had an execution of less than 7 at the Test Event and less than 8 at European Championships. She does a lot of toe-on work and also has a piked Gienger and a straddled Jaeger. She dismounts with a double layout. Izurieta mounts the beam with the ever-exciting round off layout stepout. Her first pass is a back handspring-back handspring-layout to 2 feet. Izurieta also does a switch split-layout stepout, sheep jump, a side aerial successfully connected to a side somi, L turn, and a 2.5 twist dismount. Izurieta opens her floor routine with a double L turn and a whip-whip-triple twist. Her music has the feel of the instrumental that was part of a movie soundtrack. She does a triple turn, full in tucked, and dismounts with a 2.5 twist.

D-Scores: VT - 5.8, UB - 5.6, BB - 5.8, FX - 5.7
Routine: Watch her routine from 2012 Europeans here or below:



Ralitsa Mileva, Bulgaria (BUL)
Mileva is the sole female artistic gymnast representing Bulgaria at the Olympics. She placed 57th at the Test Event. Mileva vaults a front handspring tuck half out. She did a vault with a 4.8 SV at the Test Event. On bars, she does a lot of low bar work, then does a piked Gienger when she gets to the high bar and dismounts with a toe-on front half. Mileva mounts the beam with a round-off onto the springboard, back layout onto the beam. She does a front aerial-back pike, and dismounts with a side aerial to double twist. Mileva opens her floor routine with a triple turn. She also does a double tuck, double pike, L turn, and full twisting wolf jump.

D-Scores: VT - 4.8, UB - 4.2, BB - 4.8, FX - 4.8
Routine: Watch her BB from the 2012 Test Event here or below:


Sherine Ahmed El Zeiny (EGY)
In 2008, Sherine was the first Egyptian WAG to qualify for the Olympics where she finished 62nd in the qualifying round. In 2012, she helped lead the Egyptian team to gold at the African Championships. Sherine is headed to London where she will be joined by Salma Mahmoud El Said at this Olympic Games as they have both have been invited to compete. The D scores I used are from 2011 Worlds. She vaulted a FTY at the 2008 Olympics, a very clean one at that! She has very nice form on bars - with a toe-on 1/2-piked Jaeger, and double pike dismount. El Zeiny's most exciting move on beam is a Yang Bo leap at 1:07 in the video linked at BB. On FX, El Zeiny is a powerful tumbler with a double pike and 1.5 to triple twist. FIG recently did an article on Egypt's 4 gymnasts attending the Olympics - 2 WAG, 1 MAG, 1 Rhythmic Gymnast. Read it here.

D-Scores: VT - 5.0, UB - 4.6, BB - 4.4, FX - 4.1
Routine: Watch her UB routine here or below:


Hope you guys enjoyed this series!

Check out the others in the series here:
Mixed Group 8 - Laura Svilpaite (LTU), Heem Wei Lim (SIN), Maria Paula Vargas (ESP), Ralitsa Mileva (BUL), Sherine Ahmed El Zeiny (EGY)

Mixed Group 7 - Barbara Gasser (AUT), Jessica Gil Ortiz (COL), Nastassia Marachkouskaya (BLR), Jessica Lopez (VEN), Luiza Galiulina (UZB)

Mixed Group 6 - Jonna Adlerteg (SWE), Vasiliki Millousi (GRE), Valeria Pereyra (ARG), Annika Urvikko (FIN), Heo Seon Mi (KOR)

Mixed Group 5 - Phan Thi Ha Thanh (VIE), Sasa Golob (SLO), Celine Van Gerner (NED), Simona Castro Lazo (CHI), Salma Mahmoud El Said Mohamed (EGY)

Mixed Group 4 - Do Thi Ngan Thuong (VIE), Nataliya Kononenko (UKR), Zoi Mafalda Marques de Lima (POR), Valeriia Maksyuta (ISR)

Mixed Group 3 - Marta Pihan-Kulesza (POL), Tina Erceg (CRO), Giulia Steingruber (SUI), Lorena Quinones Moreno (PUR), Maria Homolova (SVK)

Mixed Group 2 - Elsa Garcia (MEX), Julie Croket Gaelle Mys (BEL), Moldir Azimbay (KAZ), Goksu Uctas (TUR), Ana Sofia Gomez Porras (GUA)

Mixed Group 1 - Kristyna Palesova (CZE), Yamilet Pena Abreu (DOM), Hiu Ying Angel Wong (HKG), Dorina Boczogo (HUN)

[Confusing] Country Codes